Data brokers are eager to get their hands on your name, location, employment history, marital status, and financial records. All this personal information is a goldmine for advertisers. However, Surfshark’s data deletion tool, Incogni, can help you maintain your online privacy.
Incogni is a data removal service that contacts data brokers on your behalf and requests the removal of your personal information from online databases.
You can save a lot of time when using Incogni as you don’t have to submit data removal requests on your own. Plus, sometimes, data brokers ask you to fill out complex forms for them to delete your data. However, with the Incogni data removal tool, you don’t have to worry about any of that.
But is Ignogni the best data deletion tool? In this Incogni review, we put the service to the test!
Incogni Review: In a Nutshell
What We Like
- Sends data removal requests on your behalf (time-saving!)
- Interface is simple, organized, and easy to use
- Tracks and reports on responses from data brokers
- Relatively inexpensive (monthly subscription plans)
- Sends out recurring data removal requests to help you long term
What We Don't Like
- Doesn't prevent data acquisition; only requests removal
- Exclusively available in the US, UK, Canada, and the EU
- Doesn't provide details on what data is found
The Incogni data removal tool is great for optimizing your online privacy. The company uses data protection laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act and the GDPR to force data collectors to erase your personal information from their databases.
Setting up an Incogni account is straightforward: all you need is your name and email address. To use the tool, you must provide your address, sign an authorization form, and verify your email address. Overall, Incogni treats your data with care (though they use temporary marketing cookies).
At the moment, Incogni works with 180+ data brokers, and this number keeps growing! Within the time frame of testing the Incogni data removal tool, they managed to complete 23 official data removal requests for us, with 81 more pending.
Even after the trial period, we keep receiving updates about pending removal requests. Our latest progress report showed that Incogni completed 142 requests.
Unfortunately, there is no way to verify exact details since Incogni doesn’t provide insight into which data it found or removed. We found customer service to be helpful and responsive, though there is no live chat support.
In comparison to competitors, Incogni is relatively affordable. Luckily, there’s a limited offer that you can make use of, where you get 50% off when you sign up!
Pricing: How Expensive Is Incogni?
The Incogni data removal service remains surprisingly cheap compared to other providers. We have reviewed Abine DeleteMe and researched Kanary, and they were both more expensive.
Incogni has two pricing plans:
- Monthly plan: $12.99 per month
- Yearly plan: $6.49 per month ($77.88 per year)
If you want to save money, we recommend the yearly plan, which saves you 50% compared to the monthly plan. You can pay with your credit card or through PayPal.
Who is Incogni for?
Our Incogni review revealed that this is a great data removal tool for people who:
- Are worried about big data and privacy
- Want to save time on sending out data removal requests
- Don’t want to pay too much money for a data deletion tool
When testing Incogni, we found its interface easy to use and its subscription prices very affordable.
Keep in Mind:
Incogni doesn’t provide any details on what data they find or request removal for. This can be a downside if you like to have more insight in the type of data that exists of you online. A service like DeleteMe actually gives you a breakdown of what details a targeted data broker holds.
If you want an easy-to-use, no-nonsense tool that does data removal for you without paying too much money, Incogni might be the service for you! There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee that lets you try the tool risk-free.
Why get a long-term Incogni subscription?
You might wonder why the Incogni data removal service offers monthly and yearly subscriptions. Isn’t it enough to send out data removal requests once? Unfortunately, no.
An official data removal request might force a broker to delete your data, but it won’t stop them from gathering sensitive data again. That’s why Incogni sends recurring personal data removal requests.
This is a definite plus in our books! It provides users with the reassurance that their data stays off the market as long as they have an active Incogni subscription. This continuous data removal is also one of the main steps of deleting yourself from the internet permanently and continuously keeping your data private.
Moreover, Incogni is constantly expanding its reach and adding new data brokers. The longer you have a subscription with Incogni, the more data will be scrubbed! If you care about your online privacy, the Incogni website is certainly worth a visit.
How to cancel your Incogni subscription
To cancel your Incogni plan, you’ll need to reach out to customer support at support@incogni.com. If you cancel within the first 30 days of your subscription, you get a full refund.
But what about your pending requests?
When testing Incogni, we were happy to learn that Incogni continues to work on pending removal requests even when your subscription has ended! This is great news since brokers have 30-45 days to respond to a request.
Pro Tip:
While Incogni will still handle pending requests once your subscription has ended, they will not contact new brokers. You need to keep an active subscription if you want to make sure your data doesn’t resurface in new places.
Privacy: How Privacy-Minded Is Incogni?
From a data removal service, you can expect a high standard for privacy. Moreover, Surfshark developed Incogni. This VPN provider is one of the most private VPNs, so we had high expectations.
Indeed, this data removal service did not let us down on this front while we were conducting our Incogni review! We found that the provider handles customer data well and collects as little information as possible.
However, it does request certain information from you and has (temporary) marketing cookies. Let’s take a closer look!
How much information does Incogni store?
Incogni requests and stores several types of data:
- Device information: How you navigate the Incogni website (through analytics and marketing cookies)
- Personal data: Your full name, address, and date of birth
- Account information: Your email and password
On top of this, you need to sign an authorization form, also called a “limited power of attorney.” This is how you give Incogni the power to contact data brokers on your behalf.
Whereas anonymizing personal data can be smart on other occasions, Incogni needs accurate personal information to function. They can’t make data removal requests on incomplete or inaccurate data.
Unique Selling Point:
While it may seem contradictory to request any personal data at all, we’re happy to see that Incogni requests as little information as possible! Especially in comparison to its competitors: Abine’s DeleteMe, for example, requests your government-issued ID right off the bat.
When trying out Incogni for ourselves, we were also happy to see that Incogni doesn’t sell your data to third parties!
One thing to note is that the Incogni data removal tool does have (temporary) Google Ads cookies on its website. However, this is par for the course when using Google Analytics, and we have to assume no foul play.
How Incogni protects your privacy: Legislation
Incogni makes data removal requests based on several privacy protection laws, including:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
- Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
Because Incogni depends on these pieces of legislation, it only works in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, and the United States.
The United States has various privacy laws for different states, so Incogni’s options might differ depending on where you live.
How does Incogni remove your data?
The Incogni data removal service screens 180+ data brokers to see if they have any of your personal information. In our most recent Incogni tests, we found that 106 brokers were in possession of personal data.
What happens next? You don’t have to do any of the work. Incogni will contact these data brokers on your behalf.
Once official removal requests have been sent, companies need to comply within 30 days (GDPR) or 45 days (CCPA). If they don’t, Incogni will pursue the matter as much as they can, but it may take a few weeks or even months.
One thing to note is that Incogni doesn’t know any details of your private data. This is excellent news from a privacy standpoint. However, it can make it impossible to verify whether brokers have actually removed your data.
Still, it’s a fantastic way to get rid of some of your most private data that may exist online. And if you want to test Incogni out for yourself, you can take advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee.
Data brokers Incogni works with
You might be wondering how many data brokers Incogni screens.
At the moment, Incogni works with over 180 data brokers, which is an impressive feat considering the service was only launched in 2022! For comparison, DeleteMe works with only 100 data collectors despite being around since 2011.
During our Incogni review, we discovered that the brokers that Incogni vets are localized in industries like marketing, risk mitigation, recruitment, and people search, which thrive on excessive data collection. Some of the most top-tier brokers are:
- Yello
- Dailymotion
- Hashtag
- All Webs Leads
- AccuData
- InfoPay
- Censia
What we’re even more impressed by is Incogni’s dedication to keep expanding. Their list of data brokers grows at an exemplary rate!
Usability: How User-Friendly Is Incogni?
We reviewed Incogni’s usability on three fronts: signing up process, dashboard functionality, and customer service. Here’s what we found:
- Incogni is easy to set up.
- The dashboard is neatly organized and intuitive.
- Customer service is fast and responsive, though there is no live chat.
Signing up for Incogni
To get started with the Incogni data removal service, you have to create an account. For this, you only need to enter your email address and a password.
Once you’re done, you’ll be taken to your Incogni account. There are four steps to complete so that Incogni can start sending requests to data brokers on your behalf:
- Verify your email address.
- Provide additional personal data, including your full name and home address. This will help with accurate data removal.
- Sign the power of attorney document so Incogni has the right to send official data removal requests in your name.
- Choose a subscription plan. We recommend choosing the annual plan since Incogni is constantly getting new brokers on board.
Once you’re done with the registration process, Incogni contacts data brokers on your behalf and will start to send data removal requests.
There were a few things that stood out to us regarding our Incogni user experience:
- When signing up for the first time, you receive an onboarding email that helps you get started and provides insight into data broker systems!
- You don’t have to put in any effort when it comes to data removal. If you receive an email from data brokers trying to circumvent Incogni and get you to stay in their database, you can just ignore the email (as long as optout@privacy.incogni.com is included in the “CC”).
Pro Tip:
If you notice Incogni is excluded from the CC, all you need to do is reply to the email saying that Incogni will take care of the request and add them to the CC. They’ll take it from there!
The Incogni dashboard
The default view of the Incogni website after login is the dashboard, which is neatly designed and has a minimalist and intuitive interface.
You can use this dashboard to check the status of your current data removal requests. There are three categories for all of your data requests:
- Requests sent: The number of data brokers Incogni contacted on your behalf
- Requests in progress: The number of brokers that have started processing a data removal request
- Requests completed: The number of brokers that confirmed they now hold no data on you
It’s also possible to get a “detailed view” of the data broker and the status of your request. Here, you can also see data sensitivity. This is measured on a scale of 1-10, where the number 1 means data is not sensitive, and 10 refers to highly sensitive information such as financial details or your social security number.
Incogni’s customer service
Incogni’s customer service options are rather limited. There was no number we could call, nor was there a live chat option. However, the Incogni data removal service provides reliable email support through this address: support@incogni.com.
We tested its customer service in our Incogni review by sending them some questions. Impressively, we received a detailed response within an hour.
Furthermore, Incogni has a useful knowledge base covering the data removal process, dealing with data brokers, and more. Over time, this knowledge base has grown, which shows how committed Incogni is to continuously improving its service.
What Is a Data Broker?
A data broker collects your information and sells it to third parties, like marketers and advertisers.
Also known as information brokers or data resellers, data broker companies collect all kinds of information about you: name, gender, age, telephone number, and residential address, but also your purchasing history, interests, occupation, and education level.
This information can be used to serve your personalized advertisements. In some cases, data is obtained from government records, but mostly from your web history and social media. You could use a good private search engine for more online anonymity, but it may not be enough.
A service like Incogni removes much of this private data and prevents a data broker from selling it to other parties.
Why Use a Service Like Incogni?
You might be wondering if you need a service like Incogni at all. Why pay for something when you can send out removal requests yourself? There are two reasons why you may find Incogni useful:
- Time: Sending data removal requests by yourself can take hours and hours. There are over 4,000 data brokers out there. On top of that, to prevent a data broker from adding your data back in, you’ll have to resend data removal requests after a while. Incogni takes care of the entire data removal process for you.
- Effectiveness: With so many data broker companies on the market, you might not know which ones have your personal information on file. Besides, data brokers may draw out the process by requesting you to fill out complex forms and all kinds of verification requests. A service like Incogni is built to jump through these hoops.
Ultimately, Incogni is a service that knows what they’re doing. They’re backed by a knowledgeable legal team and work with algorithms that pinpoint exactly which brokers have your information. If you’d like to see how Incogni works, you can make use of their 30-day trial period.
Should You Get Incogni? The Expert Verdict
After testing the Incogni data removal process, we’re fully convinced that it’s a worthy investment.
You save a lot of time, prevent data collectors from selling your private information, and you can trust that pending removal requests will continue to be processed, even after you’ve canceled your account. We were quite impressed with the service during our Incogni review.
More importantly, it’s a very easy tool to set up and use. Incogni contacts over 180+ data brokers on your behalf and always works hard to improve itself by adding new data brokers!
Due to its affordable subscription plans, Incogni is a great option for people who are concerned about their privacy but are short on time and money. If you want to see how this data deletion tool can improve your online privacy, you can now get 50% off an annual subscription!
If you want to know more about online privacy and how you can safeguard yours, check out these articles:
- How to Browse the Internet Anonymously
- The Best Private Email Providers
- Take Charge of Your Google Privacy Settings
If you have a question about Incogni, check out the FAQ section below. Click on a question to read the answer.
Incogni is a privacy tool that automates data removal requests on your behalf. In other words: it makes sure companies online don’t have a bunch of personal information about you.
You can sign up for an Incogni account without paying. However, you need to subscribe to either the monthly or annual plan for Incogni to send data removal requests on your behalf.
Yes, Incogni is legit. The privacy service excels at predicting which data brokers have your data, sending them removal requests on your behalf, and providing progress reports.
Also, it was developed by Surfshark, an excellent cybersecurity company that has no records of data breaches in the past. Learn more about Surfshark in our Surfshark review.
Incogni’s cheapest monthly plan costs $12.99. If you opt for the yearly plan, you’ll pay only half, at $6.49 per month (a total of $77.88).
